More Palin...
You have to love National Review Online. It's definitely not the same NR that Mr. Buckley crafted (Rich Lowry somehow evokes the image of short pants and the Headmaster's Office), and that Florence King once graced,although I can never get enough Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn or John Derbyshire, so that it remains a guilty pleasure, if you discount much of the crap that has crept into it's pages in recent years.

But, you really have to love NR when they get naughty and post something thing like this on their website. It is a stirring defense of Sarah Palin and a perhaps more clear-headed exposition of today's 'liberals' and how they operate than anything I've seen in ages. Kudos to David Kahane!

If you don't think this is how so-called liberals really operate, one need look no further than Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune, aka Chris Matthew's Token Mouthpiece. He posted this piece of garbage in today's Trib. Whatever they're paying Clarence, I'm certain it's probably enough to just barely avoid the discrimination lawsuit, while still allowing him to pretend he's a journalist.

And here's what Maureen Dowd, the staunch feminist, Bill Clinton Alleged-Rapist Fan-Club President, and bitter sixty-year-old-teen-aged-girl, puked up earlier this week. The piece I've been railing about all week. If it doesn't fairly scream "I'm jealous! Why can't I have what Sarah Palin has? Oh, right: because I'm barely a human being and little more than a life-support system for a vagina that no one wants", I don't know what else does. Perhaps if Maureen stopped talking long enough, she might find someone drunk enough to throw her a mercy bang.

Some Thoughts on Michael Jackson...
Preface: It's a terrible thing when someone dies.

Now what do I really think?

First, I can't say that I was ever a fan. I thought the music was pretty good, though. I would say that I preferred the Jackson 5 to Micheal's solo stuff, though. Note: I grew up in an era (late 70's/80's) where the three biggest stars of the day were Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Micheal. Cyndi was the best singer, Madonna was every teenaged boy's fantasy. Michael, however, was the best all-around entertainer. I can remember the teenage frenzy surrounding "Thriller" which I thought was pretty cool...the first three times I saw it. The allure quickly wore off after that, and I can't recall being impressed with the music much after that. Particularly that Jackson/McCartney rubbish. It wasn't to my taste; I was still listening to the Beatles, and discovering Led Zepplin and Rush at the time.

Second, this week-long orgy of grief is a bit over the top. Turning it into some sort of racial kerfuffle was way over the top, as some of the usual suspects did. You know who you are. I'm fairly certain that if we scanned YouTube, some of the very same 'Civil Rights' leaders and entertainers who greedily 'claimed' Micheal Jackson as one of their own in death, lampooned him mercilessly in life for his skin bleaching, predilection for young male companions, his wedding to Lisa Marie Presley and the effeminate demeanor. I guess he wasn't 'authentically black' enough for them when he was alive, because I can recall an awful lot of African-American entertainers making a decent-enough living satirizing Jackson. Don't even start with the Civil Rights Hero nonsense. That assertion doesn't even deserve a place in this discussion.

Third, all this talk about how Micheal 'broke barriers', particularly racial ones, and he should somehow be sainted for it, overlook some tremendous personalities in the entertainment world who brought black and white together musically long before Micheal Jackson arrived on the scene. Nat "King" Cole, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, Sammy Davis Jr., Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne (and how can anyone forget Stevie Wonder?) were giants in American musical culture. If anything, they were the pioneers; Micheal Jackson could only become the entertainer he did because those people were here first. Motown was already a household name, cultural phenomenon, and musical genre before Micheal Jackson even spoke a word, let alone sang a note.

I think the people who have exaggerated Micheal's impact on the culture have gotten it all wrong; he was an entertainment giant who stood upon the shoulders of even more titanic talents.

And see? Not a word about pedophilia and drug abuse (allegedly).

Naturally, there will be those who disagree, and maybe I'll even get a few e-mails accusing me of a) stupidity and b) racism. I know at least one of them will include the phrase "you don't get it; it's a black thing", or words to that effect. You're right; I don't.

Now ask me if I care.

I'm sorry that a man is dead, but no amount of news coverage, no amount of political correctness, and certainly no amount of whitewashing (ooops!) about his place in history or the culture is ever going to convince me otherwise. So, y'all can stop trying so hard.

Some Thoughts on Palin...
The biggest news of this past week has been the resignation of Sarah Palin. There has been an awful lot of entrail-reading, and I won't attempt to do very much of my own, but there have been a variety of ulterior motives attributed to this event(other than she's sick to death of having her children attacked and ridiculed by a vicious media) that others have divined.

James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal gives Sarah the benefit of the doubt and takes her at her word; she needs to see to her children and family. Plausible enough. The New York Times (that's right; the New York Freakin' Times actually printed an opinion on Palin that wasn't a smear job, unlike this one. Maureen Dowd needs to get laid.) says she's a victim of a political elite who are obsessed with race, class, gender and educational pedigree. I happen to agree with that. I am absolutely stunned that something that makes sense actually was printed in the NYT. This theory is further reinforced here, at NewGeography.com with a very insightful piece...by a dem, no less.

I'm not convinced of the "Sarah: 2012" gambit as I was three days ago. I don't think she would have given up her post as Governor of Alaska had that been the case. Better to launch yourself with a little altitude under you.

I am totally convinced that Sarah Palin might, that's might, return to politics relatively soon, but at the head of a either a new movement in Republican politics, or at the head of an entirely new political party, more genuinely conservative where it counts (spending, smaller government, strong economic policies and national defense), and less obsessed with other people's sexual organs and the Rapture.

Time will tell. But, I wouldn't count her out. For all those democrats (small 'd' intentional) who have been drooling this past week, believing that they have destroyed a budding counter-force to their mindless stupidity, you're in for a rude shock. This woman is your worst nightmare. Like Jason or Freddy Kruger in a skirt, she'll keep coming back to terrorize you. Be afraid, democrats, be very afraid.

Update: I do not ascribe to the theory that Palin is hated in Republican circles, and therefore will not run for higher office in future, a canard which has been often-attributed to former McCain campaign staffers (who always seem to remain anonymous -- they're either cowards, or they don't exist.). If there are such weasels about, have them try to explain why their man was losing...until Sarah showed up. If you buy the "Palin-sunk-us" routine you have to ignore some very inconvenient truths (the only time that phrase might actually be useful!):

* McCain was hated by the Uber-right even more than Satan is. One only needs to hang around FreeRepublic to see this, where John McCain is considered the Ur-RINO. Many of this sort of Repub would have voted for Hillary before they pulled the lever for McCain.

*McCain shot himself in the foot with his 'suspending his campaign' stunt. He went back to Washington to stop that ridiculous, dangerous, disastrous, deadly TARP monster....and then voted for it anyway (after Harry Reid made an asshole out of him on national TV). Barack Obama, in a foretaste of things to come in his August reign, simply voted 'Present' and stayed out of the fray (i.e. avoided making a decision). McCain made himself look foolish.

*McCain was just a rotten candidate, through and through. The telling moment for me, in retrospect, was that meeting in Wisconsin (I think it was) where folks were yelling at McCain about how pissed off they were about things, and Johnny hemmed and hawed and ummm'ed his way through it, applying Senatorial Crapspeak where he thought appropriate. Palin took the microphone from him ...and got that room all jazzed up, ready to vote republican and perhaps eat vulcanized rubber. McCain was making them angrier and would not say what they wanted to hear (that things could be different and that Washington was a place where the mediocre and untalented went to get rich).

I hear one more person say 'even the Republicans/McCain people don't like her', I will batter them bloody with a blunt instrument.

The Gatekeepers....
I read this report on Politico.com this morning and shook my head. If this is true, the Washington Post is now no longer a newspaper, and everything it has to say --on the editorial page, in it's reportage -- on the topic of health care should not be believed. Not a single word.

I know the newspaper business is tough these days, but to solicit bribes to arrange access to bureaucrats and lobbyists, if this report is accurate, is an all-time low. My Lord!

Someone at the Post should be hung from the yardarms for this stunt, and then perhaps they'd ought to just close the doors and take the shingle down after that.

Trust...and Stuff...
RE: Barack Obama and promises. He has a hard time keeping them, it seems. He promises the gays he would wave his wand (his rhetorical one, not an actual one. Only fairies have magic wands, you know) and the Defense of Marriage Act would be gone, as would the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy.

He promised he would not raise taxes on anyone 'making under $250,000 a year', which was so much hot air. Income taxes might not rise, but every other conceivable tax and fee will under Obama, because otherwise he can't pay for free medical insurance and college scholarships for illegal aliens, and all of his scheme for 'reparations by another name' for the Black Comm-unnn-itaayy.

That's just to begin the list of broken promises (thankfully, I'm happy he hasn't kept some of them); all the promises about ending involvement in wars? Nope. Closing Gitmo? Nope. Repairing the old alliances? Nope? 'Fixing' Health Care? Nope, more likely to break it forever.
Keeping unemployment at 8%? Laugher! "Save or create six million jobs? Only in his dreams.

Barack Obama reminds me of an old joke/proverb we used to tell around here:

See, there was this man who discovered that his house was infested with termites. So, he picked up the Yellow Pages and called the first exterminator listed there. The Exterminator arrives, gives the man's house a once over and offered him the following advice;

"If you spend one hour a day shouting at the termites at the top of your lungs, they'll go away in a week."

The Man, of course, is skeptical, but the Exterminator assures him "Trust me, I'm a professional. Here's my bill."

So,the man shouts at termites for a week. His front porch collapsed. So, he calls The Exterminator again.

The Exterminator is shocked, shocked, that screaming didn't work. So, he gets The Man's garden hose, and starts spraying the house down. He spends hours watering the house, whistling the entire time. When he's done, he assures The Man "That ought to take care of them. It'll take a week for the house to dry out, but you should not see a termite after that. I've drowned them all. Here's my bill."

A week later, a section of the roof collapses. So, The Man calls The Exterminator a third time.

The Exterminator is amazed, just absolutely flabbergasted that both shouting and watering the house have not solved the termite problem. But, he tells The Man, he has one more trick up his sleeve; The Exterminator goes to his truck, and returns with a 5-gallon can of gasoline. He begins to liberally douse The Man's front porch with gasoline, and then throws a lit match.

The House burns down. The Exterminator presents his bill.

Now, The Man is irate: "You burned my house down, you bastard!"

"Yes, I did", says The Exterminator, "but your termite problem is fixed!"

That's Barack Obama in a nutshell; He'll say anything, do anything, no matter how stupid or apparently pointless. He offers ineffective remedies for our 'problems', dissembles when they don't, can't or won't work, blaming straw men (his infamous 'some say...', 'there are those who...' speeches) for being 'selfish', 'stubborn' and 'un-American' for daring to act in their own self-interest as the 'root cause' of the failure of his policies to produce Cotton Candy and Rainbow Ponies for All... and then he sticks us with the bill.

The Chicago Street Hustler at the top of his game, he'll constantly remind you that what advocates will surely work if you just trust him (i.e. surrender your sanity and wallet). After all, he's a professional.

I'm sure that somewhere in the White House, there's a 5-gallon can of Gasoline and a box of kitchen matches.